Words
by queendom-of-avalor
Summary: A series of Avaloran short stories trying to capture the feeling of interesting words
1. Monachopsis

-The subtle but persistent feeling of being out of place-

Naomi was on a rant. She paced around the living room, arms flying about expressively as she told her father about everything that was driving her crazy in her role as Grand Council Member. The most common thread seemed to be Chancellor Esteban.

"And then he said-" She pulled herself upright in a parody of Esteban "-'Miss Turner, it is not appropriate to sit in such a manner on the divan.' First of all, it's a _couch_ not a _divan_. Secondly who is he to tell me how to sit! Stuffy old know it all... " Her grumbling became unintelligible.

Captain Turner sighed. "Naomi, they do things differently at the palace, you know that. It's just like when we move to a new place, we try to do things the local way."

"But he's always on my case! I don't think he even approves of the way I _breath!_ Ugh!" She sat down hard and the couch beside her father, her emotions spent.

Captain Turner patted her consolingly on the back. "It doesn't matter what Chancellor Esteban thinks, I'm proud of you and Elena values your opinion." He told her.

She smiled halfheartedly, knowing he was trying to help.

"Thanks dad." She hugged him. "I guess I better get ready... Official royal party and all that." She went up to her room to change. Her ballgown was laid out on her bed and she stared at it miserably for a moment. The last royal function she had attended there had been some members of court who disapproved of the dress, and the fact that she only had one. They didn't say anything to her directly but they made sure she heard them.

Of course she only had one dress! Why would she need more than that? She was sure Elena would lend her something, or have one made for her, but she wasn't interested in using her friendship for material gains. It would feel… sleazy. It wasn't the nicest dress, her father had picked it up for a bargain from a merchant who'd been late with his docking fees, but it was hers.

She sighed and put it on.  
The next thing she lacked was makeup. The other girls all looked fantastic with their faces painted up but she had no idea how they did it, nor did she have the patience to find out.

Finally she brushed her hair and tried to give it some semblance of order. These were occasions when long hair would be useful, she would be able to just pin it up in some sort of fancy style. Although, knowing her hair, it would just be a mess anyways.

She was ready and waiting by the door when Gabe pulled up with the carriage. Her chauffeur to take her to the ball. Ridiculous. She had never imagined this was how her life would go.

"Hi Gabe." she said as she climbed up on the bench beside him.

"Hey... Watch out tonight, Esteban's in a _mood_."

She sighed, just what she needed.

"Did someone make the party decorations the wrong shade of red?" She asked sarcastically.

"I don't ask questions I don't want to know the answers to." He said stoically.

Carriages a were pulling up to the castle and women in lavish ball gowns were being helped down by gentlemen in elegant suits. Naomi hopped down gracefully before Gabe could get any fancy ideas about being gentlemanly. At least, it would have been graceful except that the back of her dress snagged on the carriage.

She heard giggles and unhooked herself quickly, not even checking if anything was torn. No one seemed to be looking at her. She tried to convince herself they'd been laughing at something else and the timing had been bad.

"Have fun." Gabe told her before taking off to put away the carriage. With him gone she felt utterly alone and surrounded by people. Taking a deep breath she forced herself to keep her head up and march decisively to the palace door. She was a member of the Grand Council, she belonged there she told herself.

The foyer was packed with a sea of humanity she was loathed to have to navigate. The air smelled of perfumes and powders, it was was suffocating. The worst thing part: she was actually quite good in crowded social situations. She'd grown up in ports and on boats where you had to be able to get along with all sorts of people, sometimes in very close proximity. She reveled in packed bars, listening to the bawdy sailor stories, playing cards, dancing and singing. Sure it was a rough place sometimes, and you always had to be careful, but you knew where you stood. This was different. Here everyone wore a strange mask of politeness, yet their remarks and glances could cut deeper than the most profane insults.

Stars, she hated this part. It felt like everyone was looking at her as she walked by. She thought she'd been growing comfortable with the opulence of the palace but when it was filled with strangers its grandiosity became intimidating once more.

She just needed to find Elena or even Isabel before...

"Do you smell that?" a girl's voice said to her right. Violeta Porra, younger than Naomi, but her makeup and dress make her look older. She fanned herself, nose crinkled delicately against the offending scent. She had her little gang of ladies standing around her as always. Naomi couldn't remember any of the other's names, they didn't seem to have no other purpose other than to torment her.

"Oh yeah, the harbour smell? Gross." Her friend in pink replied. Then she added "Oh, look, it's Naomi." They watched her over the tops of their fans.

She wasn't going to say anything...

"Oh, Naomi, I didn't see you there!" Violeta said, exchanging amused glances with her entourage. "Do _you_ smell that?" She asked knowingly.

She was going to find Elena and…

"Ah, miss Turner, there you are." It was Esteban, great, just what she needed right now… "I require your assistance in some very urgent matters. You know we are far too important to be standing here chatting idly like children." He looked pointedly at the girls. Violeta's face was _red._

He gave his his arm and they walked away, slowly "You know, it's very good of you spend some time with those young girls, they could certainly learn something about respect from your example." He said it to her, but loudly enough the girls were sure to have heard.

Naomi didn't know what to make of all this so she just went with him. The crowd seemed to part more readily for them now that the Chancellor was there. He lead her to the other end off the room.

"What's the 'urgent matters'?" She asked skeptically.

"You simply must try the sandwiches." He told her flatly, gesturing to the table of refreshments.

She stared, bewildered. Had he just been making an excuse to get her away from those girls?

"Thanks Esteban." She said, still not believing he was just being nice to her.

"Miss Turner, I will not allow a member of the Grand Council to be disrespected. I will see to it that it does not happen again."

Had he just called her a member of the council without sneering? A real, sincere acknowledgement of her position?

"Now straighten up. Shoulders back. Do not eat the small sandwiches in a single bite this time." He commanded.

Well, he couldn't let her get comfortable she supposed.

"Yes, sir!" She said with a mock salute and a smirk.

"Go, go!" He shooed her back to the party. She kept her spine exaggeratedly straight and stiff.

He rolled his eyes but he was smiling.


	2. Rubatosis

The unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat.

Elena lay in bed and went over her schedule for the next day in her mind. It had become her nightly routine to help her fall asleep. She remembered when she hadn't needed pay attention to such things. Her itinerary had been laid out for her. Tutoring sessions and family time all flowed into each other with the seamless grace that could be achieved by an accomplished planner...

First she would have breakfast with her family, as usual.

Then she had to have her morning council meeting and listen to any petitions brought in by the citizens.

After that she and Isabel were scheduled to meet with an ambassador from Satu about their engineering program. They really wanted Isabel to attend. She'd been given few weeks to consider it and the meeting was going to be her deadline for the decision. The palace wouldn't be the same without her but it would be a great opportunity to learn from some of the most forward thinking mechanical minds in all the realms. Isa had said she didn't want to leave her friends and family but-

Elena heard a scraping sound. She shot up and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place but things always looked a little different in the dark. The balcony curtains were opened, allowing slivers of moonlight to cut the darkness. The disturbance could have been the wind... She lay down again but she was still listening intently. There was a rhythmic thump that was feeling more than sound. Maybe it was the flags that adorned the palace being buffered by wind, or the room settling... She lifted her head slightly and the sound was quieter. When she put it back down and it resumed its previous volume. She realized it was her own heart beating. She could feel it in her chest and a fraction of a second later it pounded in her ears. She wondered briefly if it was fluttering faster because she was paying attention to it... She would never get to sleep with it drumming like that. She tried to go back to thinking about her plans… Where had she been? Right, the possibility of Isabel going to Satu for school. It would be lonely without her but she'd come back for all the holidays of course and the summer between semesters. Maybe Elena could even surprise her with a visit sometime! She could bring Naomi and they could all go try those famous Satu noodles...

Her thoughts gradually dissolved into a dreamscape, becoming more and more fanciful until she was truly asleep, no longer aware of the beating of her own heart.


	3. Vellichor

The strange wistfulness of used bookshops

(adding this as a chapter to keep everything together)

The shop had been build in the space between its two neighbours. Isabel didn't remember it being there and she'd passed this way many times in the carriage. Mateo had told her about it and she'd insisted they go visit.

Mateo pushed open the door and a bell rang.

The smell of old paper hit her as soon as she entered. There was wall to wall shelving, completely crammed with books. The tables were covered with the overflow. It seemed there wasn't a single surface devoid of literature apart from the narrow path that lead to the back of the room. They were every size and colour imaginable yet somehow they seemed to form a cohesive whole. The beams of light that fell into the room felt ancient, like even touching these relics had aged it. Dust floated lazily in the air giving the shop a strange texture, as if it was underwater.

She sneezed.

A fluffy grey cat stared at her from a nearby table with its piercing green eyes. It seemed to consider her for a moment, then decided she wasn't worth its trouble as it went back to its nap.

There was a counter to the left with a bell but no one seemed to be there.

"Mr Desilva?" Mateo called, being careful not to knock anything over as he walked into the room.

No answer.

"He's a little hard of hearing." He confided to Isabel, who was still standing by the entrance and gawking at the sheer number of volumes packed into the small space.

They had more books at the palace of course but they were all neatly organized and stored in pristine condition. Some of them could only be handled with gloves.

But this, this store was her kind of chaos! She was almost afraid to touch anything as she observed the spines, noting strange titles and foreign author names. She wanted to know how they'd been categorized! Medical texts were next to botany books and fiction novels with no apparent correlation. Despite the lack of organization she had no doubt that the owner of such a place would know exactly where to find what they were looking for.

She noticed a staircase to her right that was so steep it was almost a ladder. A man appeared at the top of it.

"Mateo!" He said. He seemed much too old to have such a thing in his home but he scrambled down it easily. "And you brought a friend!" He looked at Isabel with a smile. He had a large beard that covered his mouth and smiling eyes with thick spectacles. "A princess if I'm not much mistaken." He bowed. "Our collection is less impressive than yours but I think I may have a few thing of interest." He told her with a wink. "I'm afraid we don't have anything new to do with magic since you were here last though." He told Mateo.

"That's ok, we're just browsing." The wizard said. He turned to Isabel "When I was starting out all I had was my grandfather's notebook. It mentioned his collection but Mam assumed it was still in the palace. Truth is Mr Desilva had them all hidden in his shop!"

"That's right, in the room your grandfather made for me to store my special finds." Desilva said. He indicated small table with a carpet underneath.

"The trap door is right there. You can open it up if you like." He told them "If you remember the password." He added.

"Of course!" Mateo said. He carefully moved the tablet and carpet, revealing the ring handle of a trap door.

"And here we see: an ordinary cellar!" Mateo said theatrically, opening the door. Sure enough it lead to a dark space that held an assortment of things including book binding equipment, an old horse harness and a healthy population of spiders.

"But, with the proper knowledge, it's so much more!" He continued, closing the door again and putting a hand on it. "Bunuelos, cinnamon and chocolate." He said, the least magical incantation Isabel had ever heard. "It was his favorite." He told her in an aside. A light flared up between the floorboards. When Mateo opened the door again it was a whole different room. The space itself was bigger and lined with shelves that housed yet more books. They were not second hand but the impressive leather bound tomes like they had at the palace. Mateo indicated a set of empty shelves. "That's where grand father's books were, we moved most of them to my house when I started learning. Now some are in the workshop at the palace too."

"Wow, that's amazing!" She looked back at Mr Desilva. "Is this always here and you can only see it with the password or is it actually a portal to a completely different place?"

Desilva laughed. "That's quite an insightful question! You'll have to consult Alcazar's notes on the matter."

Isabel turned to Mateo with puppy dog eyes. "I think it's a portal." He said. "A simple camouflage spell wouldn't have fooled Shuriki's guard, they had magical detection devices. I'll find the notebook for you though and we'll find out." He promised. "Now, this is certainly the coolest part of the shop but it's not my favorite."

What could be better than a secret hidden vault of books?  
"Come on." He told her, closing the door and putting everything back in place. He indicated the steep stairs. "Up there." he said, gesturing for her to go first.

The ladder creaked under her weight and made her nervous but she was well rewarded when she got to the top. A round window let in more of that ancient light, which shone on two plush chairs, a table between them with an adorable tea set. There were more piles of books around them. It was the perfect reading nook.

The floor creaked as she tiptoed towards it, afraid to ruin the picturesque mood of the place. Mateo came up the ladder behind her.

"Desilva told me to give you this." He said, handing her a novel.

An illustration of a girl in armour, holding a sword. She had a horse with her and what seemed to be magic in the background. Isabel turned it over and read the description. It seemed to be the first in a series of silly fantasy novels.

She gave Mateo a skeptical look.

He shrugged. "Just… Give it a chance, Desilva is usually on the mark with his recommendations.

"Alright… I'll try it." She curled up in one of the chairs, the sunlight hitting the pages just right to make the printing seem extra crisp. Mateo found a book for himself and joined her.

The next time she looked up Desilva was bringing them a lantern to read by. "You young people and your amazing eyesight." He said, shaking his head with a smile.

Isabel's mind slowly came back to reality. It was like breaking through a fog, she'd been so immersed in her reading. She realized it was dark outside.

"What time is it?" She asked, panicked.

"Almost eight." He told them.

"Oh my gosh! We have to get back! Elena will be wondering where I am!" She got up, and remembered she was still holding the book. "Oh, here." She held it out to him but he shook his head.

"It's yours." He told her.

She blinked. She was a princess, she could afford to buy books. Besides, she was about to finish this one. She had been completely right of course it was a silly fantasy series, far below her reading level. A ridiculous plotline involving magic, daring deeds and a far too much romance.

"Do you…" She began hesitantly, he knew exactly how silly and cheesy the book was. "Do you have the next one?"

He smiled.

 _(this 100% starts her addiction to fantasy series and cheesy romance novels which she'd never really had access to at the palace)_


	4. Altschmerz

Weariness with the same old issues that you've always had – the same boring flaws and anxieties that you've been gnawing on for years.

"Let's get out of the way so the geniuses can talk." Naomi had said when Mateo and Isabel's conversation had become impossible for ordinary people to understand.

Gabe was so tired of hearing that. It was always the same. Even if Naomi excluded herself from the 'genius' group she thought she was smarter than him. And, if he was being honest, he agreed with her.

All he was good for was grunt work. He couldn't do magic, no one cared about his opinion and his looks certainly hadn't managed to win him the queen's affection.

Elena patronized him.

Naomi thought he was arrogant and stupid.

Mateo humored him.

They weren't wrong. There was nothing he could do about it though. He wasn't smart, period. He didn't retain things the way Isabel and Mateo could. His solutions weren't as clever as Naomi's or as compassionate as Elena's. Sometimes conversations flew over his head. His actions were often met with exasperated exclamations of "Oh Gabe!"

He was good at taking orders and he could lift heavy objects, whoopee...

He sighed, too much introspection was bad for moral.

"Gabe!" Isabel's voice snapped him out of his brooding.

"What's up, Princess?"

"Can you hold this straight for me?" She handed him two sheets of metal with holes drilled into them. He lined them up carefully so she could bolt them together. When she finished she passed him another piece for the other side. He knew exactly how it fit together, they'd done this before.

"I don't know what I'd do without you!" She said with a sweet smile.

Well, at least it wasn't a thankless job.


	5. Onism

The frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time.

Set in Future Avalor

* * *

 _(pt.2 of People Feeling Sorry for Themselves. Don't worry about Gabe in the last chapter friends, he was having a bad day it's not his usual state of mind :p)_

* * *

Esteban watched from the window as Elena ran off with her friends for the hundredth time. _He_ had an appointment with the physician. He was seeing far too much of the man in recent years.

As he walked down the palace hallways he looked at the paintings adorning the walls. Previous Avaloran nobles and their exploits made for an impressive patriotic display. He remembered Abuelo and Abuela telling him the histories behind each one when he was a child. He and Elena would play act the scenes, defending Avalor from imaginary threats with their wooden swords.

When Shuriki had taken over he had ordered all the painting be taken down and hidden. They'd been put back within a week of Elena beginning her rule but they'd become background elements, objects he saw but didn't look at.

Surely one day Elena and her friends would grace these wall for future generations to look up to...

Would he?

Or had he missed his chance?

He was too old for the kinds of escapades that were made into great paintings. They lived in interesting times but not in the same way as the past. Adventures making fantastical discoveries, Kings and Queens creating a system of government, great wars of conquest and expansion… Those were no longer the order of the day. The issues that faced them now were moral conundrums. Gone was the righteous certainty of the ruling class, when their only obligation was protection in exchanged for goods and services.

What it must have been like to have been the first to cross the Great Ocean! To have discovered a new species! To have fought bravely on the frontlines in a battle for Avalors freedom!

But those days were gone.

This new world belonged to people like Isabel. What would it be to see the future? When more and more would become mechanized and the Dona Paloma's of the world were making the decisions? Esteban was weary of the woman. She'd been expanding at a phenomenal rate these past six years while Elena disbursed the treasury with charitable spending. The Palmona Trading Company had become synonymous with Avaloran commerce, her logo adorning products and ships. Together they would have made a formidable duo, but Paloma was too rapacious to share her success.

Esteban was trapped. A body that betrayed him more with every passing year and a Queen who didn't listen to him. He would die and fade into obscurity while Elena's reign continued for decades. So much time wasted under Shuriki…

No. Avalor had changed, and for the better, even under Shuriki. It was because of him. He had kept the country great and handled the sorceress. Even if no one else in the queendom recognized it, he knew what he had done.

It didn't stop him from wondering how different life could be.


End file.
